DEMI GODS AND SEMI DEVILS Book 1 of 5 (Adventures of The Youth) by Jin Yong

High Cliffs And Faraway Persons Part 5

"Of course you can eat tigers and leopards, but not humans!"

"Is human flesh poisonous? I didn't know anything about that."

"It's not poisonous. It's just that you are human, I'm human, and that guy is human too. We can't eat humans!"

"How come? I saw jackals and wolves eat other jackals and wolves when they were hungry all the time."

"That's right. But if we humans eat human, then aren't we no better than those wolves?" sighed Duan Yu.

Mu WanQing had stayed with her master all her life and never had any meaningful contact with another person. Her master was an eccentric character and never talked to her about the world outside. As a result, she was completely clueless about the rules, etiquette, or morals of the world. So at this point, hearing Duan Yu saying that "humans can't eat humans", she could only stare at him with her elegant eyes in confused trust.

"Killing all those people wasn't right of you either. Confucius wrote: 'Do onto others as you would have do onto you.' If you you don't want to be killed then you shouldn't kill others. If others are in trouble, then you should help them. That's what it means to be human."

"But if I was in trouble, would others come and help me? How come that other than my master and you, everyone else I met want to bully me, harm me, and kill me? If tigers or leopards want to bite me or eat me, I would kill them. If people wanted to kill me, then naturally I would kill them. How is that any different?"

Duan Yu had no answers for her questions. All he could say was: "So you really don't know anything about how the world works."

"You don't know any martial arts, yet you meddle in the matters of the martial world. Seems to me that you don't know that much about how the world works either."

"Can't deny that!" All Duan Yu could do was force a smile and nod in agreement.

Suddenly, Mu WanQing let out a little yelp and jumped into Duan Yu's arms. "He... he's back...."

Duan Yu turned around just in time to see a yellow figure jump up over the edge of the cliff as Divine Croc of the Southern Seas landing on the mountain top.

As soon as he saw Duan Yu, he smiled. "You haven't kowtowed to me and officially become my disciple yet. So I have to be careful. Some shameless dude could come along and steal you from me. Number 1 said that everything world always favors those who make the first move. Only when you actually have the thing you covet should you consider it as yours, else if somebody took it from you, it's much harder to snatch it back. Number 1 is always correct, I can't beat him, so I got to join him. Hey! Kid, get over here and become my disciple!" Divine Croc ranted.

Noticing how he freely admitted that he lost to "Number One" despite being very competitive, Duan Yu was quite surprised. But with Divine Croc's left eye was swollen and the corner of his mouth split open, Duan Yu had to be convinced that it was "Number One" who had done this to him. Knowing that he could not become his disciple, Duan Yu instead decided to try to change the subject and waste time.

"That was Number One who blew the whistle just then wasn't it? Did you guys have a fight?"

"That's right!"

"Then you must have won and beat Number One black and blue, right?"

"No, not at all," Divine Croc violently shook his head. "His martial arts skills are way better than mine. We haven't met in so many years and I figured that even if I couldn't beat him this time and become Number One of the '4 Arch-Villains', I would at least be able to last 100 or 200 moves with him. But who knew that after 3 punches and 2 kicks he had knocked me down for good. So Number One is still his place to take, I'll just settle with being second. But I was still able to land a couple of good kicks on him. He actually said to me: 'Yue Number Three, your kungfu has improved quite a bit.' Number One actually praised my kungfu, and what Number One says is always correct."